Voices From The Readers

Prior to last week’s letter even being published, the OCPD investigating officer was here first thing Thursday morning Oct. 8. The first thing that the officer and my son discovered was that the owner of Continental Cycles where we bought the moped, left out a character digit of the VIN on the original sales document, which also serves according to him, as proof of ownership.

This document and the VIN associated, along with a picture, is what was used to identify the stolen moped to the officer during the original report. Had the document been properly filled out perhaps this episode would have had a truly happy ending and also ended with my singing praises for the OCPD.

However, we all know that computers, as smart as they are, are stupid when it comes to matching names and numbers if they’re not an exact match. The investigating officer maintains that he did enter the VIN (as he had it) into the NCIS. This apparently (sic) tripped up the computer into thinking that there was not a match from the moped that

was recovered; if the number was entered as it really appeared on the found moped. We still don’t believe that was done due to the property clerk not having the VIN in her system (missing number or not) when my son showed up with the sales document.

Nevertheless, the OCPD had an emailed color picture of the moped, it was found by police three blocks from our home, subsequently fished out by the cops, and it was found only five days from when it was reported. Someone surely could have checked further. These things are not cheap.

The officer also said while he was here that Thursday, that he did check the "yard" after my son left the message on his voice mail. Where he checked, however, was where they store motorcycles and scooters. The moped was stored more or less where bicycles are stored. Why? I don’t know. So he did check but hadn’t had a chance to call and tell us that he didn’t find it. But, it took my son less than two minutes to find it from outside the fence when he went there last Tuesday, Oct. 6.

And by the way, the property clerk told us while we were there picking it up that it would have been sold during the auction this Saturday.

If any apologies are warranted, those who think they should have one can take one.
Lawrence E. Snoots

Ocean City

Get Educated On Issues

Editor:

People always say, “I don’t like what is going on but what can I do about it beside vote?” My answer is that you can educate others as to what is going on and encourage them to get involved.

One can get involved and educate others by writing letters to the editor, contributing to community forums in newspapers, calling talk radio programs and just talking to people at every opportunity. The media won’t educate us if it is not in accordance with their political views.

Our self-serving politicians care about one thing, their power. They want to stay in power by staying in office more than they want what is good for America. Citizen power comes from us threatening them with firing or, better yet, term limits. One of the, if not the only, promise that Obama has kept is that he promised to change the way America fundamentally works. We are, whether we are aware of it or not, witnessing just that and it will be for the worse.

I am alarmed by how few people realize that an economic tsunami is heading for us. This tsunami will be caused by the awesome growing debt, our dependence on foreign oil, dealing with a nuclear Iran and the catastrophic future costs of Social Security, Medicaid, Medicare and the loss of many pension funds as we all live longer.

How many people know how large the number one billion is? Our limited human minds are too small to comprehend a billion, no less a trillion. Who is going to pay for all this? Future generations and us now will pay. We are setting the stage for generational theft.

What makes America great is the desire we have to make something of ourselves by contributing to society in such a way that benefits ourselves, by making money, and the public, by providing goods and services. This desire to gain meaningful employment enables us to earn a living, spend money for enjoyment and pay reasonable taxes which supports the government in its proper endeavor to make a better nation for all. That’s the way it is supposed to work but will not work if one thing is missing. That one thing is the incentive we have to work. That incentive always goes away when one is over taxed. That is the absolute direction this mindless administration is taking us. The heart of our wonderful capitalistic system, employment, which has given us all those fabulous goods and services that we all take for granted, is under assault.

— $384 billion in stimulus is proposed to be spent but only 10 percent has already been. Do you know why? The 80 percent is being held back until just before the 2012 Obama re-election.

— The $1.2 trillion, 1,018-page healthcare bill will take over one sixth of the US economy and fundamentally strip US citizens of their freedoms making us totally dependent on the government. It will eliminate health insurance companies awarding a profoundly inefficient, costly monopoly to the government. It will get its money by taking it out of Medicare and taxing the American public to paralysis thereby destroying the incentive to go to college and get good paying jobs. Obama is in a great hurry to get this passed. He fears people will learn the details, but plans not to have it go into effect until after the 2012 election.

Don’t reassure yourself into thinking that all this can be reversed with the next election. When an infrastructure that made something work is destroyed, our health care system, it is almost impossible to get it back. Also, once people get the perceived notion that something is for free it is impossible to reverse or change that program. Consider Social Security.

Get involved with “Americans For Prosperity”, a national organization that organized many Tea Party demonstrations, including the DC Sept. 12 march. We will be meeting again at the Ocean Pines Community Center at 7:30 p.m. on Oct. 27. We are in the process of becoming the first generation of Americans that will leave our children worse off than ourselves. The day is coming when your grand children and great grandchildren will ask you, “when and why did America stop being great?”

Dennis W Evans

Berlin

County Need Big Box Stores

Editor:

They just don’t get it. The Worcester County Commissioners recently agreed to approve design guidelines that, according to senior citizen Louise Gulyas, president of the County Commissioners, will get rid of “ugly” big box stores.

In my 90 years on this earth, I have learned that no matter how hard any government tries, they cannot stop the development of efficient, effective and economical private sector enterprise. For example, in these difficult economic times, it’s increasingly important for consumers to be able to have access to big box stores and their one-stop shopping, extended store hours, free parking, lower prices and jobs for people who work in stores. Given a choice, I believe that many individuals would rather work in a big box store than be unemployed. Moreover, with a growing senior population in Worcester County, big box stores are well designed for handicap persons such as myself.

Instead of trying to impose artificial impediments to block the development of big box stores, the county should be providing incentives to obtain these significant economic drivers. To see the advantages of proper planning and incentives for big box stores that benefit consumers and government, all one has to do is visit the new Lowe’s and BJ’s along Route 113 near Millsboro, Del. These stores’ parking lots are very crowded and many vehicles on the lot have Maryland license plates. By attempting to hinder commercial progress to protect the inefficient business models of the past, the commissioners are driving up the costs for not only the citizens of Worcester County but also to the many visitors to the county.

Evelyn Sweeney Toner

Ocean City

Support Appreciated

Editor:

On behalf of the Dwayne Purnell family, I would just like to thank all who participated and contributed to our first annual benefit breakfast to help the needy in our community. To my regular staff who not only donated their time and hard work but also donated all tips taken in that day . We donated 100 percent of the daily receipts and with private donations we were able to raise close to $5,500 to help out the family of Dwayne who is home now and requires 24-hour care in wake of his complications from triple bypass surgery. We only wish him the best and hope he pulls through this.

I must add that whenever something happens to someone in this community it seems there is always a willingness to help those affected and that is a wonderful thing indeed. I was so excited to go to work that morning that I woke up at 2 a.m. and was ready to come to work feeling great about what we were doing. We were busy from the time we opened the doors until we just about ran out of food around noon. Thank you all so much for coming out and supporting the Purnell family at their time of need.

There is a line from a song by the Grateful Dead, a band I followed for years and went to see over 200 times called Shakedown Street. The line goes "Don’t tell me this town Ain’t got no heart, just got to poke around". Well you didn’t have to poke around too far to see the love displayed last Monday at the Sahara Café.

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